66.5% vote in first phase of Jharkhand polls; in 2019 it was 63.7% | India News – Times of India

The total voter turnout in the first phase of the Jharkhand elections on Wednesday, for 43 seats, was 64.8%, higher than 63.7% for these 43 seats in 2019.
Rural areas, mainly tribal belts YMMVoting was heavy in the stronghold of Kolhan division since morning as urban apathy led to low turnout in the constituencies overlapping Ranchi and Jamshedpur as voters of 1.4 crore cast their votes.
Maoist calls for boycott fall apart as voters flock to Jarkhand booths
At 79.1%, Kharsawan (ST seat) saw the highest turnout, while Ranchi recorded the lowest turnout, 52.3%. The Jamshedpur East and West segments stood at 57% and 56.3% respectively.
“In the Budha Pahad area of ​​Garhwa district, once considered a stronghold of extremists, long queues and peaceful polling stations at the Hesatu polling station signaled the deep penetration of the democratic ethos… this polling station was set up in the Budha Pahad area for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, allowing residents to vote in their own villages,” the Election Commission said on Wednesday.
Even as voters queued up outside, the frantic campaign for the second phase of elections to the 38 remaining seats, in the crucial JMM strongholds of tribal area Santhal Pargana and coal-rich Koylanchal, intensified.
The final phase of voting will take place on November 20. Early in the day, Odisha Governor Raghubar Das voted in Jamshedpur (East), while Chief Minister Hemant Soren and his wife, Kalpana Soren, Rajya Sabha Vice Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh, former Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni and other VIPs cast their votes in Ranchi.
Former CM Champai Soren, who cast his vote in Seraikela (ST), said BJP would drive home the issue of infiltration.
The INDIA bloc of JMM, Congress and RJD, and NDA, led by the BJP Ajsu Party and JDU, remained hopeful of a good performance in the first phase. Of the 43 seats where voting took place on Wednesday, JMM has the most seats (17), followed by BJP (12) and Congress (9). In 2019, the BJP lost all fourteen seats to JMM and Congress in the crucial Kolhan division, which includes the urban seats of Jamshedpur and the iron ore-rich hinterland of West Singhbhum and Seraikela-Kharsawan districts.
“The farmers, women, workers and youth today sent out a clear message that the Hemant Soren government will return for another term. Particularly, voters in Ranchi, Jamshedpur and other urban constituencies have broken the myth that JMM is not liked by urban voters,” JMM said in a statement. BJP, on the other hand, claimed that it would win two-thirds of the 43 seats that went to polls on Wednesday.
In 950 of the nearly 15,344 polling booths, voting ended an hour earlier, taking into account the threats from Maoists; The elections remained peaceful and no incidents of arson, violence or bloodshed were reported until the evening. Defying bandh calls by Maoists in Jagannathpur (ST) and Manoharpur (ST) assembly segments, voters turned up in large numbers to exercise their franchise.
In Gumla (ST) seat, locals of several villages boycotted polls over unfulfilled demands for roads and bridges but later exercised their voting rights following assurances from the local administration. In Kanke, Congress workers raised the alarm when a BJP poll worker was found carrying a bag with Modi’s photo embossed on it.
In Simariya (SC) constituency, a 90-year-old prominent folk singer, Saraswati Devi, died of a heart attack two hours after voting. JMM and BJP workers clashed at Tandwa in Chatra, while women in Hazaribagh turned out to vote in large numbers.
(With inputs from Abhijit Sen in Hazaribagh, Vishvendu Jaipuriar in Chatra, KA Gupta in Gumla and B Sridhar in Jamshedpur)